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Edition:	Signet Classics (Mass Market Paperback)
Author:	Charlotte Bronte
Published:	April 2008
Pages:	480
ISBN 10:	0451530918
New:	$4.95 (1)
Used:	$0.01 (52)
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Jane Eyre is a classic romance novel by Charlotte Bronte that was published in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Company, London. It is Brontë's masterpiece and one of the most famous of British novels. Charlotte Brontë first published the book as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography under the pseudonym Currer Bell. The novel was an immediate critical and popular success. Especially effusive in his praises was William Makepeace Thackeray, to whom Charlotte Brontë dedicated the novel's second edition, which was illustrated by F. H. Townsend.

Plot Introduction

Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the formative years of the title character, a small, plain-faced, intelligent, and passionate English orphan girl. The plot follows the form of a Bildungsroman, a novel that tells the story of a child's maturation and focuses on the emotions and experiences that lead to his or her maturity. The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations; her time as governess at Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End (or Moor House) and at Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St. John Rivers proposes to her; and her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester at his house of Ferndean. Partly autobiographical, the novel abounds with social criticism and sinister Gothic elements. Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters, and most editions are at least 400 pages long (although the pretext and introduction on some copies can take up another 100)

Summary

The narrator and main character, ten-year-old Jane Eyre, is a poor orphan being raised in the home of her wealthy aunt, the widowed Mrs. Reed. Although bound by a deathbed promise to her husband to raise his orphaned niece, Mrs. Reed dislikes Jane. Mrs. Reed's children, Jane's cousins, sensing their mother's feelings, treat Jane maliciously and take advantage of her inferior social status. Jane's plainness, her perceptive and passionate nature, and her occasional "visions," or vivid dreams, do not help to secure her relatives' affections.

When tensions in her foster home escalate, Jane is sent to Lowood, a boarding school run by the evangelical pastor, Mr. Brocklehurst. Although Mr. Brocklehurst attempts to prejudice her fellow pupils against her by labeling her a "liar" (Mrs. Reed's accusation), she finds kindness both from the school superintendent, Miss Temple, and Helen Burns, a fellow student. Helen is learned and intelligent, has a patient and philosophical mind, and has an unwavering faith in God. Helen, although often heavily chastised by teacher Miss Scatcherd for small or imagined faults, is unfailingly humble and patient under punishment, and encourages Jane to assume this posture as well. To be so submissive is against Jane's nature and although she learns to hide her temper, the injustices of the world still burn in her soul.

After some time, a typhus epidemic sweeps through the school, worsened by the semi-starvation the pupils have been enduring. Many of the girls die, although Jane is unaffected. At the same time, Helen is dying of consumption, a fate that she accepts with an utterly calm and saintly attitude. After Helen's death and the end of the typhus epidemic, conditions at Lowood improve. This is primarily due to an inquiry into why typhus fever struck Lowood--the findings of which revealed Mr. Brocklehurst's inhumane policies.

Jane slowly finds her place at the institution, eventually becoming a teacher, but after her mentor, Miss Temple, marries and moves away, Jane decides to leave. She wishes to see the world beyond Lowood and, at the age of eighteen, places an advertisement in the newspaper. She soon secures a position as governess in Thornfield Hall.

At first, her life at Thornfield is quiet. Jane's only companions are her pupil, Adèle, the young French ward of the absent Mr. Rochester, and Mrs. Fairfax, a kind, simple, unimaginative, elderly widow who is Mr. Rochester's housekeeper. Everything changes, however, when Edward Rochester, the owner of the manor, arrives. The manner of their meeting is unusual: on a dark winter's afternoon, Jane takes a walk to the nearest village to post a letter. On the way, she is startled by a large hound appearing eerily out of the mist. Initially Jane takes the dog for the spirit Gytrash, but soon realises no supernatural forces are at work when a horse and rider follow after. Spooked by Jane's sudden appearance, the horse slips on some ice, and the rider is thrown to the ground. Jane comes to his aid, and assists him to mount his horse again as he has twisted his ankle. His manner is abrupt and curt; he inquires of her where she lives and what her position at Thornfield is, then rides away. Returning from her walk, she sees the same hound, and is informed by the servants that Mr. Rochester has returned - the mysterious traveller.

The following evening, Mr. Rochester sends for Jane to speak with him in the library, and she undergoes an odd sort of interview at his hands. His manner is still abrupt and rather harsh. He appears to be about thirty-eight, dark haired and dark eyed, square of brow and strong of feature, and ruggedly athletic; however, he is not a handsome man, as Jane bluntly points out on one occasion. Mr. Rochester's quirks of temper surprise Jane at first, although they do not discompose her; she is more comfortable with honesty and poor manners than she is among the hypocrisies and smoothnesses of polite society.

As time goes by, Mr. Rochester seeks out Jane's company more frequently; she comes to understand and respect him and the two become friends. Mr. Rochester eventually takes Jane into his confidence and reveals that Adèle may be his daughter, although he disbelieves this to be the case; she is, however, the illegitimate daughter of a French opera dancer who Mr. Rochester once employed as a mistress.

As their acquaintance grows closer, Jane finds herself falling in love with her employer; but she believes, despite the strong intellectual and emotional connection that has grown between them, that he cannot care for her because of her low status and plain looks. During this time an incident occurs which turns out to be a foreshadowing of dark events to come. Startled awake by a noise in the hall, Jane goes into the corridor, hears a strange laugh and smells smoke coming from Mr. Rochester's room. Throwing open the door of his room, she discovers his bed-curtains ablaze, and Mr. Rochester deeply asleep on the bed. She manages to wake him and to extinguish the fire with water from the washstand. Mr. Rochester then leaves the room for several minutes. When he returns, he says he has resolved the matter to his satisfaction and hints that the culprit is Grace Poole, an odd servant who lives on the otherwise abandoned third floor. He then takes Jane's hand and thanks her tenderly for saving his life. He seems reluctant for her to go. However, feeling cold (and aware that she and Mr. Rochester should not be alone in his bedroom in the middle of the night), she soon takes her leave.

The next morning, after encountering an oddly sanguine Grace Poole, Jane discovers that Mr. Rochester has just left to visit the family of a local beauty, Miss Blanche Ingram, and is not expected to return for some weeks. Within a few weeks, however, he brings Miss Ingram and other guests to Thornfield for an extended house party, forcing Jane to sit in company each evening, where she observes his attentions to the beautiful Miss Ingram. Although pained, Jane is not jealous, because she perceives that, while beautiful, Blanche is proud, unpleasant, and incapable of capturing Rochester's love.

During the house party, another dramatic incident occurs. A mysterious Jamaican gentleman, a Mr. Richard Mason, appears at the household, to Mr. Rochester's apparent distress. That night, the entire household is awakened by terrific yells. Mr. Rochester dismisses the fears of the guests by saying that a servant has had a bad dream. Jane, however, knows better. She dresses herself in anticipation and soon Mr. Rochester fetches her and takes her to the third storey, where Mason lies bleeding. He has been stabbed and bitten, although by what or whom it is not clear--perhaps Grace Poole. After promising not to say a word, Jane stays with Mason while Rochester fetches a surgeon. When the surgeon arrives, Rochester has Mason bundled out of the house before dawn.

As the house party continues, Jane receives a visit from her Aunt's coachman, informing her that her Aunt Reed is dying after suffering a stroke and wishes to speak with her. Jane gains a reluctant leave of absence from Mr. Rochester and travels to Gateshead. She learns that her cousin John Reed had committed suicide following a long period of debauchery and the news of the suicide had brought on Mrs. Reed’s stroke.

Mrs. Reed dislikes Jane as much as ever, but wishes to clear her conscience before her death by revealing to Jane that she had once received a letter from Jane's uncle, John Eyre (on her father’s side, long estranged), who having heard of Jane's friendless situation wished to make amends and adopt her. Mrs. Reed had spitefully replied to this letter informing her uncle that Jane was dead. She gives Jane the letter, and Jane freely forgives her, her pity finally releasing her from her long anger towards her aunt. Mrs. Reed doesn't want to make friends; once she has made her confession, she has no wish to see more of Jane. Eventually Mrs. Reed dies and Jane returns to Thornfield.

A few weeks after her return, Jane takes to the garden one evening for a walk. Mr. Rochester follows her there. He informs Jane that he has found a new situation for her in Ireland; when he marries, Jane must go to her new position and Adèle must go to boarding school. Hearing this news, Jane breaks down and weeps, saying that she finds it hard to bear the thought of leaving Thornfield and Mr. Rochester. Rochester then asks her to marry him, revealing that he has loved none but her all along; the charade with Miss Ingram was merely an attempt to induce Jane to love him by stirring her jealousy. Jane accepts his proposal, and they plan to marry in a month's time.

Although very happy, Jane finds her month of engagement to be something of a trial. Mr. Rochester wishes to lavish extravagant gifts and praise on her, but Jane feels oppressed by the sense that he is treating her as a sort of doll to dress up. She is haunted by comparisons with the attentions Mr. Rochester paid to former mistresses, such as Adèle's mother; she doesn’t want to be "kept", and fears that Mr. Rochester will tire of her after they are married, as he tired of his mistresses. In order to keep him in line, and satisfy her own conscience, she continues to serve as Adèle's governess throughout the month, and continually attempts to provoke Mr. Rochester into irritation, in order to keep him from becoming too sentimental.

The wedding morning arrives. The ceremony has barely started, however, when it is interrupted by Richard Mason and his lawer, who claim that the marriage cannot go on because Mr. Rochester still has a wife living: Mason's sister Bertha, a Creole whom he married fifteen years earlier in Jamaica. Mr. Rochester admits the marriage and takes the assembly to the "deserted" third floor of Thornfield. There he reveals that Mrs. Rochester is a violent lunatic kept under the care of Grace Poole. It had been Bertha who had been responsible for the fire that nearly killed Mr. Rochester, and for the attack on her brother. Bertha had been able escape her room by stealing the keys on several occasions when Grace Poole was drunk.

Jane, in shock, retreats to her room. She stays there in mental anguish for most of the day. When she finally emerges, Mr. Rochester tells her the story of how he was tricked into an arranged marriage with the wealthy Bertha Mason by his father, who knew the history of mental illness and drunkenness in her family. After the marriage, Rochester discovered that his wife's tastes were antipathetic in every way to his own, and he grew to hate her. After four years of unhappy marriage, Bertha went mad. He had brought her back to England where he confined her to Thornfield.

Mr. Rochester then entreats Jane to stay with him and be his wife in all but law. Although sorely tempted, Jane refuses. Her strong internal moral guide will not allow her to become Mr. Rochester’s mistress.

Feeling that Rochester will attempt to detain her, and not trusting herself to resist temptation for much longer, Jane sneaks out from Thornfield in the middle of the night with a meagre bundle of possessions and her entire fortune of twenty shillings. She finds a passing coach and rides as far as her money will take her and disembarks without a penny, accidentally leaving her bundle of food and clothes in the coach. Completely destitute, she wanders to the nearest town, and attempts first to find work, then to beg for food. She sleeps on the open moors for two nights, becoming ever hungrier and more desperate.

Starving, weather-beaten, and at the end of her strength, Jane collapses on the doorstep of a lonely cottage on the moor. One of the residents, St. John Rivers, a handsome young clergyman, takes pity on her and gives her shelter. St. John (pronounced "Sinjun") lives there with his sisters, Diana and Mary. The three nurse Jane back to health, and find her employment as the teacher of the village school. Jane begins to find life tolerable again, although she continues to pine for Mr. Rochester. By a remarkable coincidence, Jane discovers that the Rivers are, in fact, her cousins, and that their mutual uncle, John Eyre, had died and left Jane his fortune of twenty thousand pounds. The Rivers had been left out of the will due to an old family feud, and Jane, in her gratitude, decides to share the inheritance equally among the four of them. This still leaves her a wealthy woman.

Meanwhile, St. John, who plans to go to India as a missionary, has been teaching Jane Hindi (Hindustani) and reveals that he wishes Jane to come to India with him as his wife. While Jane admires St. John and has a sisterly affection for him, she finds him cold and knows that he does not love her – he is, in fact, incapable of the sort of love that Mr. Rochester had for her. She rejects his offer, but his force of personality and moral persuasion are difficult to refuse and she is on the point of being browbeaten into coming to India, when she hears Mr. Rochester's anguished voice calling to her supernaturally.

Unable to bear not knowing what has become of Mr. Rochester and whether he has returned, in despair, to his previous immoral ways, Jane returns to Thornfield. To her shock, she finds a hollow ruin - Thornfield has burned to the ground. From the local innkeeper, she learns that the insane Mrs. Rochester escaped one night, set the fire, then ran to the roof and threw herself off. Mr. Rochester attempted to stop her but failed, and returning through the burning house, was hit by a falling beam. One hand was crushed and had to be amputated; he had lost one eye and the sight of the other. He was now living in one of his other properties, Ferndean Manor, about thirty miles distant.

Jane hurries to Ferndean. They are reunited and although Mr. Rochester fears that Jane will no longer wish to marry him, she soon puts his fears to rest. Three days later, they are married.

Speaking from a vantage ten years hence, Jane tells of their happy marriage and reveals that she has given birth to a son. Eventually Mr. Rochester had regained some sight in his remaining eye. In the last paragraphs of the novel, she reads a letter from St. John Rivers, now apparently dying in India, but welcoming his impending union with his Saviour, echoing the death of Helen Burns near the beginning of the novel.

References

Wikipedia